Theatre director Patrick Garland dies

Patrick Garland, who worked with Rex Harrison and Alan Bennett, and who founded
Poetry International with Ted Hughes, has died aged 78.

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Patrick Garland, theatre producer and writer, died on 20 April 2013 aged 78.

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Patrick Garland and wife actress Alexandra Bastedo in 1981.Photo: PA

By Telegraph Reporters and PA

3:01PM BST 20 Apr 2013

Patrick Garland, a distinguished man of arts in theatre, books and film, has died at the age of 78.

Garland, who was born on April 10th 1935, was the only director ever to have had four plays running in the West End at the same time.

With Ted Hughes, he also founded Poetry International and wrote several distinguished books of poetry himself.

He also worked with Alan Bennett, directing the original stage production of Forty Years On. He worked with Bennett on the Talking Heads series, directing Patricia Routledge in one solo play and Bennett himself in Telling Tales.

He won a Golden Globe for his 1971 film The Snow Goose which was also nominated for a Bafta and an Emmy. His showbusiness career peaked when he was twice appointed artistic director of the Chichester Festival.

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He worked with Rex Harrison on Broadway in a revival of My Fair Lady, about whom he also wrote a best-selling biography, The Incomparable Rex.

During this period he raised money to build and open the theatre's second space, The Minerva Theatre, which has seen many of its productions transferred to London.

Garland began his career as an actor but quickly found a home at the BBC where he cut his teeth directing programmes for the late Huw Wheldon on the arts programme Monitor, working alongside Melvyn Bragg and Ken Russell.

Regarded as an urbane and charming man, he was said to have had great skill in directing and coaxing award-winning performances from actors.

In 1989, he was invited to direct the Thanksgiving service for his great friend Lord Olivier at Westminster Cathedral.

His wife, the actress Alexandra Bastedo, was at his bedside at Worthing Hospital in West Sussex where he was recently admitted following a long illness.

Mrs Bastedo, who married Garland at Chichester Cathedral in 1980, described him as a "wonderful man" who was a staunch supporter of the animal rescue charity she runs from their home.

She said: "Patrick had been ill for a long time but bore all of his troubles with great fortitude.

"He was a wonderful man, brilliant with people of all types, and life will never be the same. There were always comings and goings at the house because of my rescue charity which he was always happy to put himself behind."

A private funeral service will be held and a memorial service will follow at Chichester Cathedral at a later date.